RIM Co-CEO Talks Of Plans For A BlackBerry “Super Phone” Based On Dual-Core Processors With New QNX OS

By
Mauricio

In an interview with PCMag at CES, RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis went into some detail about their plans for a BlackBerry “super phone”. We knew this was coming because a RIM VP said so back at DEVCON 2010, but we haven’t heard much about it since. Essentially, BlackBerry smartphones will run a cut-down version of the OS running on the BlackBerry PlayBook. Here are the details:

Lazaridis told me that the phones are coming, that they’ll be based on dual-core processors with RIM’s new QNX OS, and that the interface will look a lot like a shrunken-down PlayBook tablet (which, in turn, actually looks a lot like BlackBerry 6.) Future QNX devices also may eventually run existing BlackBerry Java apps as well, Lazaridis said, ensuring a smooth transition between the platforms.

That means developers may end up with three possible ways to code for the PlayBook, by the way. They could use an existing Java app (when that support becomes available), write apps in Adobe Air, or write native apps for the tablet using OpenGL.

Unfortunately it looks like it will take some time for BlackBerry smartphones to transition to the QNX OS. According to the article, RIM has a long-term plan for the next ten years. Seeing the PlayBook Tablet OS in action is very exciting and even more so when you think of it running on a BlackBerry smartphone, but I’m a bit disappointed in the time frame. What do you think?